The things we do for love
by Rogue 559
Summary: Chloe's looking for someone but a different someone's already found her...
1. Chapter 1

This is my first attempt at a Smallville story so I'm not sure if its been done already or whatever…  
  
Its got kind of a Mutant X crossover but only because of the original character so if you don't watch Mutant X that's fine.  
  
I hope y'all enjoy. Please try and review.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
The setting sun shone through the half open window as Chloe pushed the button on her computer to turn it off. She had been so preoccupied with the story she had been writing that she had completely lost track of time.   
  
She packed away her collection of pads and pens and threw away the few extra sheets of paper that always seemed to litter her desk and the surrounding floor after one of her intense writing sessions. She walked the short way to the window and closed it, taking a couple of minutes to appreciate the beauty that was spread out before her eyes. Fields progressed to meet the horizon, the leaves in the trees whispered incoherent words as a slight breeze swept through them. Over to her left the football field lay. The team was just wrapping up practice, getting ready to go home like her.   
  
She turned around and walked back to her desk. Slinging the strap of her bag over her shoulder, she switched off the overhead lights and shut the door behind her, locking it before she went. Her sanctuary, her home away from home was safe for another night. She smiled slightly and then a yawn signalled that she had to get back to her real home.   
  
***  
  
He watched her as she closed and locked the door to the newspaper office. She dropped the bunch of keys into her shoulder bag and walked down the hall. Her hair shone whenever she walked past a beam of sunlight coming through a classroom door. Her hips swayed lightly as she walked and she looked around her. Chloe Sullivan could always be picked out in a crowd. She was beautiful but then so was Lana Lang and a number of other girls in school. But Chloe was different. She was interesting, observant, always looking beneath the surface. He could have watched her, watching everything else forever.   
  
He crept around the corner and pulled a lock picking kit from his back pocket. He fiddled around with the door that Chloe had just minutes before locked. A click sounded and he was in. The door swung back on its hinges and he stepped into the now darkened room. Her scent clung to the air, refusing to dissipate. He looked around him at everything that Chloe held dear. He knew how much the Torch meant to her and it delighted him to see her put so much love and care into it. He stared at the Wall of Weird for a few minutes. This was exactly what he meant by always looking that little bit deeper than everyone else. All the other girls in school only saw what was in front of their faces, they were so completely superficial. They refused to give the time and effort that it would take to look at things from a different angle. They infuriated him with their meaningless conversations, snatches of which floated past his ears as he walked down the hall every day. Chloe was so superior to them but she didn't act like she was. He couldn't get over how perfect she was in every single way. And he was gonna let her know exactly how he felt he thought as he unlocked her filing cabinet and rifled through the pages held inside.  
  
***  
  
Clark looked over towards the farm house with its red barn and the trees surrounding the whole as he waited for the school bus. His father was carrying bales of hay to the truck and his mother had just walked out of the house letting the door swing closed behind her to bring him a mug of coffee. The birds were singing in the trees and the sun was just rising over the horizon into the cloudless, blue sky. The whole scene was so idyllic that Clark didn't even notice when Chloe drew up in her car beside him.   
  
'Earth to Clark?'  
  
'Huh?' Clark was pulled out of his reverie but it was a welcome interruption. He turned around and flashed a wide smile at his friend.   
  
'You want a lift or are you just gonna stand here for a while longer?' she said, smiling back at him.  
  
In reply Clark pulled open the car door and slid in, onto the imitation leather seat. Chloe pushed the car into gear and stepped on the gas. She was always a little more outrageous when driving, always wanting to get to where she was going fast so she didn't have to stay in one place for too long a period of time.   
  
Chloe was continuously living in the future, always looking forward to the next day, the next week, the next year. She had always been a planner.  
  
Clark on the other hand lived his life day by day. He couldn't afford to look too far ahead just in case he lost sight of the present. Chloe didn't have the same problems he did so she could afford to prepare herself for the wonderful life she was going to lead after high school and college and into her little old lady years. And that was okay with Clark. He had always been kind of jealous about other people's abilities to look ahead but now it didn't bother him quite so much. Sure, he would still love to be able to think about career prospects and what kind of house he was gonna live in and everything else that came with being an adult but he had his own abilities and they were pretty damn good in themselves.   
  
***  
  
He watched as Chloe's bright red car pulled into the school parking lot. She reversed into a space and he watched on, a smile flitting over his features as she got out of the car. The birds singing their sweet songs, the cloudless sky, the group of cheerleaders gathered in front of the school waiting for the rest of their gang to arrive, the gorgeous spring day in a long line of gorgeous spring days held nothing for him compared to the beauty of Chloe Sullivan.   
  
And it wasn't just her looks that attracted him to her. It was the way she always looked like she had fire in her eyes, a fire that none of the cretins at school could ever have. And the way she thought about things. She was so completely different she had stood out from the very first moment he had laid eyes on her and heard her talk in class.  
  
He looked across at Clark. They were always together and the way that Chloe looked at Clark made him so angry. Clark Kent didn't deserve to have Chloe spend one millisecond of her time thinking about him. Clark was worthless compared to Chloe.   
  
His fingers closed inwards and balled up into a fist. He continued to watch as Chloe and Clark made their way through the jocks and cheerleaders into the school. He walked after them, wanting to keep Chloe in his sights for as long as possible. He looked on as Chloe and Clark spilt ways with a smile and a joke and she went into the Torch office.   
  
His fingers unclenched, small, bright red half moons on his palm and he walked away to his locker, happy that he knew where she was.   
  
***  
  
'Hey Chloe,' Clark called out along the crowded corridor. 'You coming to the cafeteria to analyse what's in the meat today?'  
  
Chloe smiled. Analysing the 'food' that the cafeteria dished out was one of the highlights of her day. 'Nope, I got work to do,' she called back over the heads of all the other students. The story that she had started researching the night before had been on her mind all day and she really wanted to give it her full attention.   
  
Clark's smile drooped a little but he let it go. He knew how Chloe got when she wanted to work on a story. He was faster and stronger than wild horses and he couldn't have pulled her away. He waved at her as he turned and walked away, meeting up with Pete on the way.   
  
'Chloe's not coming,' Clark informed him.  
  
'Next big news story?'  
  
'Yep.'  
  
'You know what its about?' Pete asked. Chloe was always happy to talk about her latest obsession, interesting or not.  
  
'No, she hasn't told me anything about it so I'm assuming its not all that supernatural.'  
  
***  
  
Chloe listened to the whirring sound of the computer connecting to the internet. The story she had been looking into was definitely going up on her wall of weird.   
  
She started rapidly tapping away at the keyboard in front of her and came across the story she was looking into.  
  
'Girl falls 50 feet from the roof of a building to the ground below and walks away,' Chloe read out loud. It was an interesting story in itself but what made it even better was that the girl had been chased as far as the police were able and the last they had seen of her she was heading into Smallville, home of all things weird and wonderful.   
  
Chloe smiled, not realising that someone else was smiling, and watching, and waiting.  
  
***  
  
She walked through the car park to get to her car. She had, yet again stayed at school working on THE story till twelve. Surely this was not healthy for a teenage girl. Most people would have been dying to get away from the building that they described as hell as quickly as possible. But then Chloe never had been normal. She had always enjoyed the learning process and although she used to be ashamed of it now she embraced it as a part of who she was. Some people loved shopping, or playing sports, or watching movies and although she didn't mind doing the whole shopping thing or for that matter watching movies she was academic. As long as Clark and Pete understood and accepted that she was happy.   
  
Maybe that was why Clark didn't like her as much as he liked Lana. She was popular and cute and she didn't hang out at the school until midnight. Chloe shook her head. She had to stop thinking like that. It wasn't important who Clark liked more, whatever happened between him and Lana she would always be there to help him out and listen to all his problems and share her wall of weird with him.   
  
The window of her car shone in the moonlight and the trees rustled. It was eerie but Chloe was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't pay the world any attention. She rummaged in her bag with her right hand while she walked, trying to locate her car keys. She yanked them out and slipped them into the lock. As she pulled the car door open she got the strangest feeling. She looked around her, the back of her head burning.   
  
He looked at her from his vantage point. Yet again he had picked the lock and sneaked into the room which held all of her secrets. He saw her turn and look back at him but nothing could be seen from the outside in the darkened room in which he was standing.  
  
Chloe turned back to her car and hurriedly got in. She was tired and that always made her that bit more paranoid, if that was even possible.   
  
She pulled the door closed behind her and locked it before driving away. She needed sleep. 


	2. Chapter 2

I know its been like a billion years since I posted my first chapter and I'm very sorry. I've been busy finishing two other stories and then there's school etc.   
  
Thank you to those who reviewed. I know this is a bit of a slow chapter but it will pick up...promise.   
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
'Hey Lana,' Chloe called out over the bar at her friend. She smiled wryly as she realized that Lana was her friend. It had been a long time getting that far but they had to some extent put the whole Clark thing behind them. Yes, Chloe still cared about him and yes, he still cared about Lana, but it didn't matter so much.  
  
  
  
'Hey Chloe, I'll be back in a minute,' Lana called out as she picked a tray up and walked with it to a table at the far end of the Talon. It was busy tonight and she was rushed off her feet. Saturday nights were always pretty hectic especially since she had gotten the cinema back to its former glory. She placed the mugs of steaming black coffee on the table and smiled as the two customers, kids from school thanked her.   
  
She walked back quickly and placed the tray down again with a sigh. She needed some help. Clark had proven himself to be completely useless as far as punctuality went and she now had no idea who she could turn to.   
  
Chloe looked at Lana's weary face. She had been working all night, clearly and Chloe had absolutely no idea how she did it. It was a Saturday so Chloe had been working on the big story all day without so much as a minor interruption. She had finished but was still intrigued as to who the girl was, where she had come from and where exactly she was now.   
  
'So, how's your day been?' Lana leant against the bar and smiled. She could tell Chloe had been hyped about something, she had been for the past three days. And Lana knew Chloe well enough to know that it had to be a news story that had grabbed her attention so strongly.   
  
'Its been okay,' Chloe replied guardedly.   
  
'So, you're not gonna tell me about this news story that you have been completely enraptured about recently.'   
  
Chloe smiled and rolled her eyes. 'In Metropolis, four days ago a girl, nobody knows who she is fell off the roof of a three storey building. She walked away and the police think she has made or is making her way towards Smallville.' Chloe sat back and watched as Lana ingested the information.   
  
'Why haven't I heard anything about this?'   
  
'Because the police have been keeping it under wraps. There are no records on the event but there was a witness. He then posted the whole thing on a website that monitors paranormal activity. Think about it Lana. Anyone who can walk away from a three storey drop has gotta be some kind of mutant.'   
  
'So you're thinking a government conspiracy?' Lana replied. She was used to Chloe's paranoid nature but this story had in some strange way captured her interest and fired her imagination.   
  
'I have been hanging around with you far too long,' she added as Chloe nodded.  
  
  
  
They both laughed, realizing how stupid it would sound to anyone who hadn't seen what they had seen in Smallville. It was the centre for all things supernatural and weird. This girl, whoever she was was just another in a long list.   
  
'You need some help?' Chloe asked. She was gonna be giving Lana a ride back to their house anyway and she looked like she was soon going to be at the point of weeping if she had to work for one more minute.   
  
'You sure you don't mind?'   
  
'Not at all.'   
  
***  
  
Clark pushed open the door to the Talon and saw two of his best friends sweeping the floor. Lana looked up and smiled at him as he walked further in and closed the door, locking it behind him.   
  
'What are you doing here?' Lana asked.   
  
'Couldn't sleep. Knew you two would still be up and thought I'd come and see how you were.'  
  
They both looked at him with raised eyebrows and with a laugh he walked straight to the back of the room and started cleaning the coffee machines. He knew the drill by now. If you were stupid enough to show up at the Talon after closing then you had to expect to tidy stuff.   
  
Not a word was said for the next five minutes as the team of three continued to clean. Chloe's mind traveled back to her story. She wondered where the girl had gone since the police lost her. This kind of thing always had interested Chloe. It didn't matter where the incident occurred or who it involved, as long as it was weird, strange in any way she would be keeping an eye on it until it reached its conclusion. But she had to admit at times the looks she got from the student body almost made her want to stop being so interested. It wasn't that she liked being such an oddball, she just couldn't help her oddballness.   
  
'Are you guys done yet?' Lana asked. She was desperate to lie down, preferably on her warm, comfortable bed. It had been so long since she had had a night away from The Talon and she needed the break. She loved having the independence she had earning her own money and she loved working in The Talon, the atmosphere was so relaxed and homey but she needed to get away from it sometime.   
  
'Yeah,' called Clark from the back of the room.  
  
'So ready to go,' said Chloe, giving the final touch to the table she had been polishing. Lana took the cloth from Chloe and walked to the counter. She exchanged a quick smile with Clark as she bent down to pick up her bag and coat.   
  
Chloe leant back into one of the chairs. She hadn't been in such a comfortable position all day. She needed to get a better chair in The Torch office. She tucked her hair neatly behind her ear but her hand froze in mid air. She could feel a burning sensation on the back of her head like she was being watched again. It was so creepy but she was too scared to turn around in case she didn't like what she saw.   
  
Eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she turned slowly expecting to see some guy with a mask and a chainsaw standing waiting for her just outside the window.   
  
But no matter how hard she looked she couldn't see a thing. There was absolutely nobody out there and if it was possible that freaked her out a whole lot more. Atleast if there was someone standing there, with a chainsaw or an axe or something she would know what it was and she could put up some kind of defense. The lack of something to fight was a lot worse.   
  
Voices broke in on her subconscious as Lana and Clark made their way over to her and the front door. She stood up and picked her bag up off the floor. She silently berating herself for being so stupid. Of course there wasn't anyone out there. Why would there have been? Nobody was following her, nobody was watching her. It was the curse of writers everywhere...an active imagination.   
  
She pulled open the door and walked out onto the sidewalk. Chloe pulled the keys out of her bag and headed towards her car.   
  
And there it was again. The burning sensation like someone was intently watching her root through her bag. Her head jerked up and she looked around her not caring if she looked like an idiot. She had to find out if anyone was watching her.   
  
The street was lit up in regular patches by the street lamps but in between it was black. Across the street from her there was no movement. It was late at night and in a small town like Smallville even the weekends were quiet.   
  
  
  
A hand grabbed hold of her arm and, with a yelp she practically jumped out of her skin. Her head jolted round to reveal her wide eyes. Clark was standing in front of her with a bemused expression on his face.  
  
'You okay?' he asked, his forehead creasing with concern.  
  
'I'm fine, you just suprised me,' said Chloe with a small smile as she tried to regulate her breathing.  
  
Clark wasn't convinced. Chloe was usually very suspicious, it was in her nature and it was what made her such a good journalist. But she had never been this jumpy. Maybe it was the story she had been working on but he doubted it. He looked into her eyes, searching for some sign as to why she was acting so strange but he saw none. She had reapplied her front and now he knew he wouldn't get anything out of her.  
  
Lana and Chloe said goodbye to Clark and both proceeded to get into Chloe's car. Within minutes they were on their way and seconds later so was Clark.  
  
***  
  
He watched the lights of the cars diminish into the distance. His eyes closed and he breathed a sigh of regret. He hadn't meant to make Chloe scared. All he wanted was to watch her, to protect her from the unworthy people that inhabited the world, the undeserving ones who wanted to be close to her and to be a part of her life. Those people included Lana and Clark. They didn't realize how lucky they were to be friends with Chloe.   
  
But he would make them realize, he would make sure they all knew exactly how precious she was. 


	3. Chapter 3

Its literally taken me years to update this story. I wrote the first few chapters but then didn't get very many reviews and I was writing other stories at the time which seemed to be a little more popular and since then I kinda forgot about this one. I just received a review from someone (thanks Kit Merlot for reminding me about this lost fiction) so I decided to write a little bit more. And here it is. Thanks to everyone who reviewed before. I promise you all that I totally appreciated it, I just got distracted. Hope anyone who reads this, reviews.   
  
***  
  
'So, working on anything special today?' Clark questioned Chloe as she stuck the key into the lock of the newspaper door. She smiled a secret smile, knowing that her story was coming out that day. She had been working on it for a while and it had taken a lot of effort to fit just the right amount of suspense and mystery into the article to get the average Smallville High student interested. It hadn't been difficult. The case in and of itself was fascinating and although Chloe knew she was subjective and that the average student had an attention span of a 11 seconds at most she figured even they would want to read about the mutant.   
  
Her brow furrowed as she realized that the door was unlocked. She was sure that she had locked it securely the previous night but already her mind was questioning the things she had done. She had always been paranoid about things, recent events not helping her shed that part of her personality, and it made her doubt her own motives. Maybe she hadn't locked it, maybe she had forgotten to, maybe it had been unlocked by the caretaker so he could do his cleaning thing. She rolled her eyes at her own silliness and pushed the door open.   
  
She quickly stripped herself of her coat and scarf, placing them on the hook behind the door. She made the few steps toward her desk and pulled out her chair before realizing, with a start that her computer was on.  
  
Clark looked over at her as he heard the sharp intake of breath. He walked over to her quickly and stared down at the computer screen. A message had been typed on the word processor:  
  
Dear Chloe,  
  
I understand that you were scared, confused and worried over the presence that you cold not quite pinpoint last night. I do most sincerely apologize. I did not mean to cause you to feel afraid, I merely wish to protect you from those who would do you harm. I hope you understand that I act out of love.  
  
Yours...  
  
Chloe's face was ashen as he looked over at her and her hand was shaking as she tried to steady herself. She knew the feeling hadn't just been in her mind. She knew she wasn't just being paranoid. She thought back to all the times when she had felt eyes watching her and she had turned around, searching the ;landscape for some clue as to what it was and had seen nothing. She felt her heart racing and had to sit down before the shaking got so bad that she fell over.   
  
Clark knelt down beside her. He knew that Chloe liked having control over a situation. It wasn't that she was a control freak she just liked being independent. He was worried, of course he was but what happened should be up to Chloe next and he knew she wouldn't appreciate him poking his nose in and trying to make decisions for her.   
  
'What do you wanna do about this?' he asked quietly.  
  
She looked over at him. She hadn't really thought about what she was going to do now. Her thoughts had been stuck in the recent past. She knew the police wouldn't be able to do very much. All they had was a typed message on her computer. She doubted whoever it was had left any fingerprints. And she didn't want to make a fuss. She knew she should. Somebody was stalking her and the chances that that someone would get violent when they didn't get what they wanted, whatever that was, were high. But she didn't like the idea of the police taking over, deciding what was best for her.   
  
'Its probably someone playing a sick and twisted prank.'  
  
'I don't want to scare you Chloe, but what if it isn't?' If it was true he didn't want to scare her, but he couldn't just let her drop it on the off chance that it was somebody's idea of a joke.   
  
She yanked the mouse and clicked to close the box. She looked up at Clarks face.   
  
'I don't know,' she replied. 'We have to get to class,' she said as she stood up and walked out of the room.   
  
***  
  
Her pencil tapped on the edge of her open textbook. Maths had never inspired Chloe but she had always put in atleast the pretense of effort. But she couldn't focus her mind. She was still thinking about the letter on her computer. She was going through every time she had assumed she was being overly suspicious, every time she had berated herself for being so stupid as to think that someone would be stalking her. And the letter hadn't made her feel better, no matter what the intentions of the author had been. She was scared out of her mind. She kept on looking at people like they were going to suddenly pull out a machete and slash her into itty bitty pieces. She knew what the letter had said but she had seen enough crazy stuff going on in Smallville since the meteor shower to know that the most peaceful person could turn on you when they weren't getting what they wanted.   
  
She looked across at Clark. He was frowning over one of the questions, his hair flopping over one of his eyes. She looked beyond him to Alex, a boy with sandy coloured hair and an even tan, one of the popular kids. She had always thought he looked a little shifty. He was far too nice to everyone to not be a psychopath.   
  
She looked down at her page and shook her head in wonder at her own behaviour. Why was she torturing herself like that? Chloe knew she should just forget about it all, try and get on with her life; of course Alex wasn't her stalker. She was turning into a bundle of nerves. The fact that Clark kept on leaning over to her desk and asking her if she was okay wasn't making her feel reassured in any way. She needed to get out of school. The presence of so many people, including Clark and Pete should have made her feel a little more secure but she kept on accusing people, granted in her own head of wanting to kill her and it was driving her crazy. She needed to leave the people behind.   
  
The bell rang and dragged Chloe kicking and screaming out of her thoughts. She looked down at her page to see that the only things she had written were the date and the title. She closed her books with a slam, smoothly making the progression from scared and bewildered to angry and pissed off. How dare anyone watch her without her permission? Did they think it was incredibly romantic or something? Or were they just deranged? In any ordinary town she would have pushed the latter possibility aside without a moments thought but this was Smallville and she was not going to dismiss anything.   
  
'You okay?' Clark asked from behind her as they walked out of the room.  
  
'Stop asking me that,' Chloe said so loudly that it drew the attention of a number of other students. She looked around her, daring any of them to do anything that could be termed as offensive. Gradually one by one they looked away, it was Chloe Sullivan's crisis not theirs and therefore not that important that they had to dwell on it.   
  
'I'm sorry,' she said to Clark as she made her way through the familiar hallways to her office.   
  
'That's alright, you're under a lot of stress at the moment,' he replied. He wanted to help Chloe but she was stubborn as a mule and so he had decided that the best plan of action was to stay with her, to make sure that nobody tried anything.  
  
'There's no need to be so patronizing Clark,' Chloe said with the first genuine smile since she had seen the letter.   
  
Clark smiled back at her as they continued to walk through the crowds of students. Chloe's eyes flitted from person to person even as the smile faded off her face. The anxious look returned and she drew into herself, hoping to fade into the background, wishing the ground would swallow her whole so she wouldn't be in the eyeline of her stalker.   
  
She shook her head trying to remove any paranoid slasher movie scenarios that had popped into her brain but they wouldn't go away. It was all due to her overactive imagination but she couldn't seem to convince herself out of the state of mind she had gotten into. It was too hard to persuade herself that this was not one of the scariest situations she had ever been in. If she could see the guy she could work out how much of a threat he was, she could battle it out with him, she could do something. But not being able to look the guy in the face meant she was helpless, vulnerable. Chloe had always considered herself to be a strong person. She had always left the damsel in distress stuff to people like Lana. She played that part a lot better than Chloe ever could, especially since Clark was so eager to be her knight in shining armour.   
  
Chloe turned her head to look behind her. The self conscious burning sensation on the back of her head had returned. She felt so much like she was being watched. Her face grew redder as the heat moved rapidly up her throat and lit up her cheeks. She looked around again, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone watching her with a murderous glint in their eyes.   
  
'Chloe?' came Clark's voice as if out of nowhere.   
  
She stopped and turned back to look at Clark's bemused smile.   
  
'What?'  
  
'The Torch office is in here,' Clark replied, pointing to the doorway which Chloe had just walked straight past. 


End file.
